1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a weatherstrip for an automotive vehicle. More specifically, the invention relates to a weatherstrip for a sliding roof.
2. Description of the Related Art
As schematically illustrated in FIG. 1, various automobiles are provided with sliding roof panels 1 on the roofs 4 and, typically, a weatherstrip 2 is laid generally along the outer peripheral edge of the sliding roof panel 1. The weatherstrip 2 is attached to the peripheral edge of the sliding roof panel 1 so that, when the roof opening of the roof 4 is closed, a water-proof and air-tight seal is established to prevent rain from leaking into the vehicle cabin and to prevent wind noise.
FIG. 2A shows the typical construction of a conventional weatherstrip mounting structure, taken along the line 2A--2A of FIG. 1.
As shown in FIG. 2A, the weatherstrip 2 is provided with a main body 23, an upper lip 24, a support section 25, and a panel receiving groove 21 extending along one side for receiving a panel member, such as a glass panel 1'. The weatherstrip 2 is also provided with a hollow seal 22 on the other side, and a gripping groove 20 in the lower side. The weatherstrip 2 is generally formed as a single body by an extrusion process. The main body 23 and the upper lip 24 are made of solid rubber or solid synthetic rubber, and only the hollow seal 22 is made of a sponge material such as foam rubber.
When mounting the weatherstrip 2 on the sliding roof panel 1, an adhesive 5 is applied to the panel receiving groove 21, and the weatherstrip 2 is then fitted along the outer peripheral edge of the glass panel 1'. Thereafter, the ends of the weatherstrip 2 are mated and bonded or otherwise connected to each other, and thus the weatherstrip 2 is fixedly mounted on the outer peripheral edge of the glass panel 1'.
A vertical extension 3, of the sliding roof inner panel 3 is inserted into the gripping groove 20, and the adhesive 5 is then applied to the clearance G defined by the lower surface of the glass panel 1', the inner side face of the weatherstrip 2 and the upper surface of the sliding roof inner panel 3, to thereby fixedly bond them to one another. A trim member 6 is then fitted on the inner peripheral edge of the sliding roof inner panel 3.
As noted above, the weatherstrip 2 is typically formed from a solid rubber piece, except for the hollow seal 22. Since the solid rubber piece has a low adhering ability, it can easily be detached, particularly at the interface between the weatherstrip 2 and the glass panel 1'. Moreover, since the weatherstrip 2 is formed by an extrusion process as a unitary body and wrapped around the peripheral edge which has four corners, a compression stress is constantly exerted on the portion inside the center axis L of the weatherstrip 2. This compression stress may cause the upper lip 24 to move away from the surface of panel 1', and thus occurs a gap 27, and in the worse case, form a puckering 26, as shown in FIG. 2B. This clearly degrades the appearance of the sliding roof panel 1.